Electric vehicles are known to have at least one battery pack which may be operably coupled to an electric motor for charging the battery pack and/or for driving the wheels of the vehicle. A hybrid vehicle, however, has both battery packs and an engine. In one embodiment of a hybrid vehicle, the engine and the battery packs operate in series, meaning that the battery packs provide the power or energy for driving the wheels and the engine operates to charge the battery packs. Alternatively, in another embodiment, a hybrid vehicle may be a parallel hybrid vehicle, meaning that the battery packs provide the power or energy to drive either the front or rear wheels but the engine provides the motive power to drive the other set of wheels.